Elysium (2013)

4/5

Neill Blomkamp's Elysium will, of course, draw comparisons to the director's previous work, District 9, since both are sci-fi action movies employing hyper-realistic special effects, cinema verité-style camerawork, and plots that play like morality tales about the maltreatment and subjugation of a population's citizens. While the combination of all those things felt exhilarating and unprecedented 5 years ago, here they feel a bit tired.

Elysium, like District 9 and Children of Men, delivers a precisely-detailed and complexly-envisioned future. But the characters with which it inhabits that world are unexciting; their quest is uncompelling; the stakes are underwhelming. It is not enough for the background to be thematically interesting, because the foreground is what will get our blood pumping and bring us to our feet cheering. Instead the story feels like a pretty barebones excuse for fights and explosions. Luckily, the (rather sparse) action is exceptional, leaps and bounds better than most of what we are seeing in theaters today. Some scenes are so visually arresting, so stunningly beautiful, that they seem somehow operatic and timeless. That they are simultaneously violently graphic and viscerally horrifying does not diminish their value, but simply brands them in our minds.

Elysium is ultimately not as good as District 9. While perhaps more technically impressive than his previous work, it needed a stronger story to unlock all the potential it had. What frustrates me is that we know Blomkamp can do better. And I sincerely hope he pulls through on the next one, because I love watching his movies.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535108/

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

5/5

The Silence of the Lambs is an absolutely unforgettable movie. It is a psychological thriller, but it exceeds its genre in just about every way imaginable. It stands miles above the rest, without threat of being touched, let alone overtaken. The characters are imagined with such vivid, brilliant clarity, and are brought to life by impeccable acting, that they have entered our collective memory and our cultural lexicon. Hannibal Lecter (Hopkins) and Clarice Starling (Foster) are as American as apple pie. We have before us two people, startling in their crispness, put in a unique situation. One is behind glass, imprisoned but in control; the other is on the outside, lost as she attempts to catch a serial killer (Levine) who skins his victims. Lecter is the one in power, because of his medical knowledge and experience, but he does not take advantage of it. He helps and she accepts; she gets closer to him and the answers. The relationship that develops between the two is by far the most fascinating aspect of the movie--subtle but real, twisted but tender, unexpected but much appreciated.

This is to say nothing of the plot, which is excellent. It is smart and fast-paced, with just the right amount of exposition and mystery. The editing plays a very important role near the finale, although it is perhaps a bit too clever for its own good and takes us out of the moviegoing experience. But there are two scenes that, for me, have etched themselves in my brain forever. One, halfway through, is an escape. It is perhaps the most fiendishly devious escape I have ever seen, and it is so unimaginably sinister. In Lecter's moment of triumph, we are witness to his inimitable intelligence and his macabre sense of humor. The second scene I'm sure is on everybody's list. That scene in pitch black is one of the most heart-pounding in existence. I don't know that anything has ever topped it for me; I'm not sure I would want to watch a movie that could, because I would be shaking in my bed at night if such a scene existed. That scene is perfect, I would not change a single millisecond of it. It is cinema at its very best.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102926/

A Very Long Engagement (2004)

5/5

Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement is a brilliantly-conceived and impeccably-created tapestry of emotion and perception that transcends its individual setting and story. The movie takes place around World War I and it concerns the young Mathilde (Tautou) and her lover Manech (Ulliel). In 1917, Manech had been traumatized by the vulgar and violent sights and actions of trench warfare. He got himself shot in the hand by the Germans in the hopes of being sent home injured. But instead he was court-martialed for self-mutilation and sentenced to No Man's Land at Bingo Crepuscule with four other unlucky souls. Three years later in 1920, Mathilde believes against all odds that Manech is still breathing and keeps her hope alive with simple superstitious gambles. She hires detective Germain Pire (which ironically translates to "Germain the Worst") to find out where he is. While following the winding trail, she soon discovers that Tina Lombardi (Cotillard), another soldier's lover, is also tracking the five men from Bingo Crespuscule. But instead of reuniting with her man, she ends up killing the soldiers involved in his unjust sentence.

This movie, like all of Jeunet's movies (and Tim Burton's), contains within it a fully-realized alternate world filled to the brim with small oddities and assumed rules. After watching for just a few minutes, you get an intimate sense of the beauty and hope of the people inhabiting this macabre and sinister environment. Both Tautou and Cotillard pull this off masterfully, putting the utmost heart and honesty into their decidedly disparate but equally compelling roles. They show the vast variability love can take on, from revenge to forgiveness. Their sadness--and their happiness--is seemingly palpable and absolutely heart-wrenching.

Technically, the film is incredible. It is so well-constructed that many of the shots and scenes seem airy and natural, despite their being planned down to the degree of the camera angle. The lights, the special effects, the cinematography, the sets, the costumes, the makeup; everything is pitch perfect and as beautiful as it could possibly be expected to be. The editing is precise down to the individual frame. The only complaint that could be lodged against the cinematics of the movie lie in its complicated storyline. It is easy to get lost in its labyrinthine plot. For me, however, that just made me want to watch the movie again and again so I could gather all the subtle details and clues and piece them together.

There are two things I absolutely love about this movie. The first is the concept of point of view and the unreliable narrator. It takes Rashomon on in a different and new light. It examines illusion in the absence of deception and hope in the absence of reason. With different points of view come different stories and different conclusions, but you soon realize that you can't always trust what you see... or what you think you see. The second is the relationship between Mathilde and Manech. Something about it--in its entire breadth and depth--is so pure and so innocent that you simply cannot believe for a second that war or even death can destroy it. It is somehow unbreakable, and the ending to the film incorporates that concept so fully and so brilliantly that I cannot speak about it highly enough. It is the perfect ending to a perfect movie. Watch this movie. And then watch it again. I hope you fall in love with it as much as I did.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0344510/